Vladimir Kudrytsky: President Zelenskiy stated that almost all thermal power plants in Ukraine are damaged, and the winter will be very difficult, but there is one nuance – the Center for Investigative Journalism

This weekend President Zelenskiy told us an important piece of information: almost all thermal power plants in Ukraine are damaged and winter will be very difficult, writes Volodymyr Kudrytsky, chairman of the board of ENERGO, JSC “Ukrenergo” in 2020—2024 years.

But there is one nuance: unfortunately, almost all large thermal power plants (there are about 10 in total) were damaged already during the winter of 2022-2023 years. Then almost all thermal power plants were damaged again in 2024 year. And in 2025. The last round of damage to all large thermal power plants was last winter 2025-2026 years.

Therefore there is nothing new here. And the main question we must pose to the authorities is: how much new decentralized generation has been built in these years to compensate for the loss of these gigantic facilities, which the enemy has been destroying and damaging repeatedly? After all, to attack, say, 1500 gas piston container stations,

dispersed across the territory of Ukraine, the enemy would have to expend far more effort than when attacking 10 large facilities. And the cost of one container in 2-3 times less than the cost of a Russian missile, while the effectiveness of Shahed strike drones continues to decrease.

The figures are very discouraging.

In last year's competition for building new generation, in which Halyuschenko tried to manually influence the results, only 78 MW will be built, and not all plants are currently running. As of July 2026, about 700 MW of new gas generation is in the energy system.

This is with a deficit last winter of 7000 MW.

This failure to build new generating capacity is a direct result of the lost time while the Myndich group plundered the energy sector in 2022-2025 years. It is also a direct result of the fact that, even after the Mindichgate, the authorities consciously decided not to replace corruptionists in Energoatom, the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NERC), and other large energy companies.

With such a “contingent,” attracting the necessary volume of investments in gas generation from private companies and Western donors is simply impossible. I am not even mentioning the change of the Government 3 months before the heating season, which was done only to remove Fedorov.

Therefore, for the most part, all that can realistically be done before winter is to connect to the energy system the power plants donated by partners that are still standing behind a fence. Maybe 100-200 MW will be added from 7000 needed.

And to hope for a warm winter.